Description

This book investigates the globalization process of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in West Africa, primarily in Benin and Ghana, based on ethnographical studies. It challenges the dominant vision of "a powerful China in Africa", and argues that the so-called "Chinese business advantages" – monolithic Chinese state and Chinese low cost advantages, are non-viable for sustaining Chinese business development in the continent. Considering the Chinese SOEs globalization process in a relational approach, this book examines how the triple embeddedness (Chinese, African and managerial) shapes the Chinese SOEs globalization process over time and space, in diverse dimensions and among different entities – the Chinese state, Chinese SOEs, Chinese expatriates, the African government, African business partners, African staff, and the African society. It illustrates that the Chinese central state has "retreated" deliberately from its SOE globalization in Africa. The Chinese SOEs and Chinese expats are the major actors in initiating and inventing globalization strategies, facing limited Chinese state support and the African neopatrimonial governance and social contexts. Besides, the personal trajectories (from expatriation to social promotion) of Chinese SOE expats interweave with the globalization-turn-localization of their SOEs in Africa. Rejecting the linear, static and binary vision of "powerful China in powerless Africa", the present study thus emphasizes power dynamics in Chinese SOEs’ globalization process are organic and pluralistic though in certain extent hierarchical –"second-class". Time and local relations are key elements constituting the real Chinese advantages for Chinese SOEs vis-a-vis their ultimate competitors – not Western companies, but other Chinese companies.

Table of Contents

1. CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION

2. CHAPTER 2 – “RETREAT” OF THE CHINESE STATE

3. CHAPTER 3 – AFRICAN EMBEDDEDNESS AND VULNERABLE CHINESE

4. CHAPTER 4 – AFRICAN MANAGERS AND WORKERS

5. CHAPTER 5 – CHINESE EXPATS

6. CHAPTER 6 – COMPETING FOR THE “CHINESE COMMUNITY

7. CHAPTER 7 – CONCLUSION

8. Bibliography

About the Author

Katy N. Lam is Assistant Professor at the Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

About the Series

Routledge Studies on Asia in the World will be an authoritative source of knowledge on Asia studying a variety of cultural, economic, environmental, legal, political, religious, security and social questions, addressed from an Asian perspective. We aim to foster a deeper understanding of the domestic and regional complexities which accompany the dynamic shifts in the global economic, political and security landscape towards Asia and their repercussions for the world at large. We’re looking for scholars and practitioners – Asian and Western alike – from various social science disciplines and fields to engage in testing existing models which explain such dramatic transformation and to formulate new theories that can accommodate the specific political, cultural and developmental context of Asia’s diverse societies. We welcome both monographs and collective volumes which explore the new roles, rights and responsibilities of Asian nations in shaping today’s interconnected and globalized world in their own right.

We are particularly interested in books that demonstrate interdisciplinary and holistic thinking; rigorous and creative research; cross-fertilization of Western and Asian thought; and/or a grass-roots approach.

While we are open to any exciting ideas for edited, single or co-authored work, we are currently inviting book proposals which address the following areas:

Global Governance in Asia

Dispute Resolution in Asia

Asia and International Peacekeeping

Human Rights in Asia

SustainableDevelopment Goals in Asia

Religion in Asia

If you have an idea for a new book in Routledge Studies on Asia in the World, please send a written proposal to the Editor in Chief:

Matthias Vanhullebusch matthias.vanhullebusch@gmail.com

Series Editors:

Dr. Matthias Vanhullebusch – Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Prof. Dr. Ji Weidong– Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Editorial Board:

Prof. Dr. Vinod K. Aggarwal – University of California, Berkeley

Prof. Dr. Jing Men – College of Europe

Prof. Dr. Yaqing Qin– China Foreign Affairs University

Prof. Dr. Javaid Rehman – Brunel University

Prof. Dr. Gurharpal Singh – School of Oriental and African Studies

Prof. Dr. R. Sudarshan – Jindal Global University

Prof. Dr. Nira Wickramasinghe – Leiden University

Prof. Dr. Lanxin Xiang – Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

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